In the manufacture of throughdried tissue products, such as facial and bath tissue and paper towels, there is always a need to improve the properties of the final product. While improving softness always draws much attention, the amount of stretch in the sheet is also important, particularly in regard to the perceived durability and toughness of the product. As the stretch increases, the tissue sheet can absorb tensile stresses more readily without rupturing. In addition, increased stretch, especially in the cross-machine direction, improves sheet flexibility, which directly affects sheet softness.
Through creping, improved sheet flexibility and machine direction stretch at levels of about 15 percent are easily attained, but the resulting cross-machine direction stretch is generally limited to levels of about 8 percent or less due to the nature of the tissuemaking process.
Hence there is a need for a method of increasing the flexibility and the cross-machine direction stretch of throughdried tissue products while maintaining or improving other desirable tissue properties.